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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Vivian Ho in San Francisco (now) and Joan E Greve in Washington and Jessica Glenza in New York (earlier)

Obama implicitly criticizes Trump over language that 'feeds climate of fear and hatred' – as it happened

Evening summary

The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, has some thoughts on the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and his response to the calls for gun control:

Updated

Trump to visit El Paso on Wednesday

El Paso Mayor Dee Margo made the announcement just now:

Updated

Treasury Department designates China as currency manipulator

Amid a trade war between Washington and Beijing, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has deemed China a currency manipulator under the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988.

“As a result of this determination, Secretary Mnuchin will engage with the International Monetary Fund to eliminate the unfair competitive advantage created by China’s latest actions,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

According to the Treasury Department, “China has taken concrete steps to devalue its currency, while maintaining substantial foreign exchange reserves despite active use of such tools in the past.”

The current exchange rate is $1 to 7.05 yuan. The yuan hasn’t traded beyond 7 per $1 since 2008.

McConnell says Senate Republicans 'ready to answer President's call to action'

Democrats have been pushing for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring his party in line in the Senate on gun control. He released a vague statement just now on the issue:

Guardian reporter Sam Levin is in El Paso, talking to parents of Joaquin Oliver, who was killed in the Parkland shooting on 18 February 2018.

In the aftermath of the deadly shooting in El Paso, President Trump vowed to support the city reeling from tragedy. Well:

The bill stems from a Feb. 11 via his 2020 reelection campaign, according to the Center for Public Integrity. The campaign owes thousands of dollars in police and public safety-related bills and late fees.

President Trump has taken heat for his incorrect reference to Toledo, Ohio earlier today. CNN’s Manu Raju astutely pointed out that in the photograph snapped by Reuters photographer Leah Millis, the president’s teleprompter is clearly visible and the misidentification appears to be a fumble all of his own doing.

Hey all, Vivian Ho taking over for Joan Greve. Let’s see where the day takes us, shall we?

That’s it from me today. Vivian Ho will be taking it over on the West Coast for the next few hours.

Here is where the day stands so far:

  • Trump issued a very robotic statement on this weekend’s shootings in El Paso and Toledo -- oh, sorry, Dayton. And while he called on Americans to “condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy,” he made no mention of how his own rhetoric has fueled racist sentiments.
  • Barack Obama released a statement expressing condolences for the victims and demanding reform. But he also issued a veiled criticism of Trump, demanding that Americans “soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred.”
  • Prominent Democrats, including 2020 candidates, pushed Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to take up two pieces of gun legislation that have already passed the House. (Trump has vowed to veto the bills.)
  • Wall Street saw its worst day of the year, with the Dow falling nearly 3 percent as Trump escalates his trade war against China.
  • Cesar Sayoc, the man who sent pipe bombs to Trump critics just before the 2018 midterms, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Vivian will have more coverage on the continuing fallout from this weekend’s shootings, so stay tuned.

Wall Street sees its worst day of the year amid escalating trade war

The Dow closed down 767 points, representing a 2.9-percent drop in the market. But that was a slight improvement from its low point of the day, when the Dow was down 961 points.

The market troubles come as Trump escalates his trade war against China. The president announced plans last week to slap a 10 percent tariff on the remaining $300 billion worth of Chinese imports starting Sept. 1.

The pain spread beyond the Dow. The S&P 500 fell 2.98 percent, and the Nasdaq dropped 3.47 percent. Beijing also saw its currency, the yuan, dip to its lowest exchange rate in 11 years.

Nancy Pelosi has sent a letter to her Democratic colleagues in which the House speaker emphasized that the onus was on the Senate and the White House to advance gun-control legislation.

The House has already passed two gun bills that the Republican-controlled Senate has refused to take up and that Trump has vowed to veto.

But there were talks earlier today about the House returning from recess to pass more gun-control legislation. Pelosi seems to be making clear here that she will not call the House back until the Senate takes up a bill on the matter.

Many Hispanic Texans who have never owned guns are rushing to buy firearms in the wake of the El Paso shooting.

Our colleague Bryan Mealer reports:

The scene on Sunday at Gun Central, located along Interstate 10 and two miles from where bodies are still being recovered, was more reminiscent of Black Friday than the wake of a national tragedy. People crowded shoulder to shoulder to consult with harried employees, pondering over pistols and assault rifles, banana clips and ammo. Others lined up for their turn inside the store’s indoor shooting range. Staccato gunfire thundered behind the thin walls.

‘I’m on high alert,’ said April Sanchez, a marketing executive who along with her husband was buying her first weapon. ‘I never thought I’d carry a gun, but now I want something to defend myself, to defend my fellow El Pasoans.’ ...

‘This isn’t something I’m proud of,’ she added. ‘It makes me sad and angry that I’m even here. I’m heartbroken, but I’m also afraid.’

Florida man who mailed pipe bombs to Trump critics sentenced to 20 years in prison

Cesar Sayoc, who previously pleaded guilty to 65 counts for mailing explosive devices to prominent Democrats and media figures days before the 2018 midterms, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Our colleague Victoria Bekiempis reports:

Known as a fanatical Trump supporter, Sayoc, who was also reportedly a former bodybuilder and male exotic dancer. He sent 16 crude explosives to 13 intended victims across the US, prosecutors said.

None of the bombs, which prosecutors called ‘improvised explosive devices’, exploded.

Sayoc’s targets included former Democratic Party vice-president Joe Biden, Senator and Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Cory Booker, former CIA director John Brennan, former National Intelligence director James Clapper, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the New York offices of cable news network CNN, actor Robert De Niro, Democratic Senator and 2020 candidate Kamala Harris, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former US president Barack Obama, billionaire liberal philanthropist George Soros, Democrat presidential candidate Tom Steyer, and US Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

Updated

Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association put out a statement praising Trump’s morning statement.

The pro-gun lobbying group added that it “welcomes the President’s call to address the root causes of the horrific acts of violence that have occurred in our country.”

It is safe to assume that the NRA does not consider lax gun laws to be one of those “root causes.”

Updated

Democratic presidential candidates thanked Barack Obama for putting out a statement on this weekend’s shootings, pointing to him as an example of how a president can provide “moral clarity” in such moments of tragedy:

Barack Obama releases statement implicitly criticizing Trump

Barack Obama has issued a statement expressing condolences for the victims of the El Paso and Dayton shootings and demanding action on gun control.

And although he did not mention his successor by name, the former president called on Americans to “soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments.”

Obama argued that while such language was not new, it has been “at the root of most human tragedy throughout history.” He specifically named slavery, Jim Crow and the Holocaust.

Trump's advisers were surprised by tweet linking background checks to immigration

Over Twitter this morning, Trump floated the idea of linking background check legislation to immigration reform.

The suggestion was widely denounced as a concession to the white supremacist attacker who posted an anti-immigrant screed before killing 22 in the El Paso shooting.

But even Trump’s advisers were unaware of the idea before he publicly pondered it, the New York Times reports:

When a draft of his Monday morning remarks began circulating on Sunday night, they did not mention background checks, according to two people briefed on them.

A new version Monday morning did not mention background checks or immigration, those people said. So aides were startled to discover that the president, sitting in the White House residence, had posted a tweet linking the two issues.

A string of meetings followed, including one with a small group of aides in the residence, ahead of the speech. Most aides argued the linkage was a mistake, and the president dropped both the immigration idea and the call for background checks.

El Paso officials confirmed that 22 people have died as a result of Saturday’s shooting. Here is the story of two of them:

Jordan and Andre Anchondo went to Walmart to buy decorations for their six-year-old daughter’s birthday party. They brought along their two-month-old baby, a boy named Paul.

Jordan Anchondo and her husband, Andre, who both died in the mass shooting in El Paso.
Jordan Anchondo and her husband, Andre, who both died in the mass shooting in El Paso. Photograph: Courtesy of family

After the shooting began, family members frantically tried to reach Jordan and Andre. They were contacted by authorities hours later, asking them to come to the hospital.

Family members said it appeared that Andre had died trying to protect his wife and child. Based on the baby’s minor injuries, it appears that Jordan also used her body to shield Paul from the gunfire.

She was holding him in her arms when she died.

Senator Tim Scott, a Republican of South Carolina, has condemned white supremacy in much harsher terms than the leader of his party.

Scott is currently the only Republican serving in the Senate who is black. The chamber’s two other black members, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, are Democrats.

Senator Pat Toomey, the Republican who helped craft a background checks bill after the Sandy Hook shooting, has voiced interest in resurrecting the legislation.

But it’s unclear if the chamber’s majority leader, Mitch McConnell, would actually take up the bill – or if any other Republicans would support it.

After all, very few Republican senators backed the background checks legislation after the Sandy Hook gunman killed 20 elementary school students, as a Washington Post reporter noted:

Updated

Trump highlighted a line from his statement this morning to encourage Americans to come together as “ONE PEOPLE.”

“Open wounds cannot heal if we are divided,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The tweet comes after one of his senior advisers, Kellyanne Conway, suggested that the president’s statement was meant to set politics aside after the tragedies.

But Represemtative Vernoica Escobar, who represents the part of El Paso where Saturday’s shooting occurred, struck a different note.

“[U]nless we talk about solutions, it becomes too easy for time to pass and America to move on,” the first-term Democratic congresswoman told the New Yorker. “We can console the community, we can bring people together, we can care for one another, while at the same time talking about the real problems that caused this epidemic.

“I don’t understand the mind-set that you can’t talk about what happened because somehow it is disrespectful to the victims. I think what is disrespectful to the victims is to ignore why it happened. There are going to be 20 funerals in this community. We absolutely have to talk about why.”

Updated

Mexico’s foreign minister has just announced that another Mexican citizen - the eighth - has died as a result of the El Paso shooting.

Marcelo Ebrard named the latest victim as Juan de Dios Velázquez Chairez from the central state of Zacatecas. “Eight compatriots have died because of Saturday’s terrorist act,” Ebrard tweeted.

Ebrard made the announcement as he arrived in El Paso to offer support to affected Mexicans.

A day before Trump read his remarks on the shootings, the American Psychological Association put out a statement warning against blaming such attacks on mental illness.

The president was criticized by many for using his speech to focus on, among other things, the need to address mental illness in America.

“Routinely blaming mass shootings on mental illness is unfounded and stigmatizing,” APA president Rosie Phillips Davis said in her statement. “Research has shown that only a very small percentage of violent acts are committed by people who are diagnosed with, or in treatment for, mental illness.

“The rates of mental illness are roughly the same around the world, yet other countries are not experiencing these traumatic events as often as we face them. One critical factor is access to, and the lethality of, the weapons that are being used in these crimes. Adding racism, intolerance and bigotry to the mix is a recipe for disaster.

“If we want to address the gun violence that is tearing our country apart, we must keep our focus on finding evidence-based solutions. This includes restricting access to guns for people who are at risk for violence and working with psychologists and other experts to find solutions to the intolerance that is infecting our nation and the public dialogue.”

A bipartisan pair of senators said that they separately spoke to Trump about legislation to strength the US background checks system and that the president seemed supportive of the idea.

But Trump made no mention of promoting such legislation in his statement on the shootings this morning.

Dayton mayor takes jab at Trump after he misidentified city where Ohio shooting took place

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said that Trump may be visiting the city on Wednesday as it works to heal from the mass shooting that left nine victims dead.

But Whaley also got in a jab at the president, who misidentified the site of the shooting as Toledo this morning. “And you know he might be going to Toledo, I don’t know,” Whaley said with a smile.

Updated

The White House is working on its messaging around the shooting, starting with an edit of Trump’s morning statement.

The White House scratched out the president’s erroneous reference to Toledo in its official transcript, per an AP reporter:

And Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told reporters that the president set politics aside in his statement, per a Reuters reporter:

In reality, Trump’s focus on mental illness this morning echoes a key talking point from the National Rifle Association.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren criticized Trump for focusing on mental illness in his morning statement on the shootings. She urged the country to identify white supremacy for the domestic terrorism it is.

The Massachusetts senator made a similar statement during the Democratic debates in Detroit last week. “We need to call out white supremacy for what it is: domestic terrorism. And it poses a threat to the United States,” Warren said at the time.

The hashtag #WhiteSupremacistinChief started trending on Twitter after Trump delivered his morning statement on the shootings.

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay was among the first to use the hashtag after the president blamed “Fake News” for contributing to “anger and rage” in the country.

The progressive group Democracy for America also used the hashtag to mock Trump for misidentifying the location of the second shooting as Toledo instead of Dayton:

Trump spent more time blaming the Internet than condemning white supremacy in his morning statement on the shootings.

According to the Washington Post, the president used 105 words of his speech to call out the Internet and social media. He spent 80 words condemning racism and hatred.

He also used only 53 words to address access to guns, compared to 62 words on mental illness and evil.

House Democrats weigh returning to Capitol Hill to pass additional gun bills

House Democratic leaders are debating whether they should return from recess to take up more gun-control legislation.

The House has already passed two gun bills that the Republican-controlled Senate has refused to consider. Trump has also vowed to veto the legislation. But House Democrats are divided on whether returning to Capitol Hill would achieve their desired result, per a Politico reporter:

Bennie G. Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, issued a statement criticizing Trump’s statement on this weekend’s shootings.

“President Trump’s words today are meaningless,” Thompson said. “We know his vile and racist words have incited violence and attacks on Americans.”

Representative Joaquin Castro, who represents much of San Antonio, denounced Trump’s statement on the shootings and called on the president to stop demonizing Hispanic immigrants.

Castro’s brother, Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro, similarly criticized Trump’s statement and accused the president of serving as a “national spokesperson” for white nationalism.

El Paso death toll up to 22

A hospital official in El Paso said another victim of the shooting has died. The sad news raises the death toll from the attack to 22.

Updated

Mexican newspapers have put out searing cartoons criticizing Trump’s response to the El Paso shooting, as our Latin American correspondent Tom Phillips notes:

Trump has turned his attention away from the shootings if his Twitter feed is any indication.

The president has instead been busy attacking China for harming America’s economy and repeating the (false) claim that US consumers are not covering the cost of his trade war:

Another Democratic presidential candidate, Cory Booker, has dismissed Trump’s statement on the shootings this morning as woefully lacking.

The New Jersey senator specifically cited Trump’s focus on mental illness in his remarks. “Mental illness didn’t kill the people of Dayton,” Booker said. “People are too easily getting their hands on guns.”

Booker added that Trump has failed to take personal responsibility for how he has contributed to intensifying racist sentiment. “You can’t speak out of one side of your mouth about the need for us to come together as a country but consistently do things that divide this nation and pit us against each other, that fuel racial bigotry and hatred,” Booker said.

He said Trump’s handling of the tragedies represented a “catastrophic failure of presidential leadership.” Booker also offered Trump some advice on how to start taking responsibility: “Speak to how you have contributed to the hate and the division and the bigotry and the racism.”

Mexican president presses US to strengthen gun laws

Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has urged the United States to end the “indiscriminate sale of guns” in the wake of the El Paso shooting, which claimed 7 Mexican lives.

Speaking at a daily press conference, Mexico’s leftist leader said the attack underlined the dangers of allowing citizens “to acquire weapons in any shopping centre, as currently happens, without any control”.

“This doesn’t happen in our country,” López Obrador told reporters.

“We have great respect for the decisions of other governments, but we believe these appalling events that have taken place in the United States should lead to contemplation, discussion and a decision to control the indiscriminate sale of guns”.

López Obrador said he was not seeking to meddle in the internal affairs of another country “but this matter must be reconsidered because it affects Americans, and it also affects us”.

Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, traveled to Ciudad Juárez, the Mexican border city opposite El Paso, on Monday to offer support to the families of Mexican citizens killed and wounded in the attack. On Sunday Ebrard said his government considered the 21-year-old shooting suspect a terrorist and would consider charging him over the “barbaric act”.

Mexican officials believe the attack deliberately targeted the Latino community. “The intentionality of the attack against the Mexicans and the Latino community in El Paso is frightening. NO to hate speech. NO to xenophobic discourse,” Mexico’s ambassador to the US, Martha Bárcena, tweeted on Sunday.

On Monday, Mexican newspapers carried a series of scathing cartoons that partly blamed Donald Trump for encouraging such hatred. One, in the Milenio newspaper, showed the US president breathing fire onto a bundle of matches.

Pelosi and Schumer demand that McConnell call the Senate back to pass gun bill

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer released a statement calling on Mitch McConnell to bring the Senate back from its recess in order to pass a background check bill.

The bill has already passed the Democratic-controlled House, but the Senate has not taken it up, and Trump has said he would veto it.

The House and Senate are both currently adjourned for the summer recess and are not expected to return until Sept. 9.

Democratic presidential candidates have similarly demanded that McConnell call the Senate back to take up the issue:

Trump has postponed a planned trip to Florida tomorrow in reaction to this weekend’s shootings.

The president was previously scheduled to visit the Villages, a Republican stronghold, to discuss Medicare. The White House did not say when the trip would be rescheduled.

Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro said in a tweet that Trump’s statement on the shootings rang hollow.

He also accused the president of serving as the “national spokesperson” of white nationalism.

El Paso death toll rises to 21

The El Paso Police Department just shared the sad news that another victim of the white supremacist attack this weekend has died:

In lieu of introducing firearms restrictions following back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, Trump called for “red flag” laws.

The National Rifle Association, the powerful firearms lobbying group, has opposed the laws in the past, both for domestic abusers and as part of a broader effort to combat mass shootings.

In April, the group opposed an expansion of the Violence Against Women Act to prevent people convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence or stalking charge from purchasing a firearm. The law also closed the “boyfriend loophole,” ensuring unmarried victims of domestic violence would have similar protections.

In May, the NRA came out against a suggestion that cities and towns should enact laws to temporarily remove firearms from people deemed to be a threat, made by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Graham said he did not support the legislation at the federal level.

All of the top 10 recipients of National Rifle Association donations are Republican Senators, according to the watchdog group Public Citizen.

Tim Ryan says Trump's Toledo flub shows how "disconnected" he is

Democratic presidential candidate Tim Ryan, who represents Ohio’s 13th District in the House, slammed Trump for confusing Dayton with Toledo in his statement this morning.

As Trump was concluding his remarks, Trump accidentally offered his condolences to the victims in Toledo, which is roughly 150 miles from the shooting site in Dayton.

“It just shows the level of disengagement,” Ryan told CNN, arguing that Trump’s mistake reflected his “diminished mental capacity” to deal with America’s pressing problems. “It’s a slap in the face to the people here in Dayton.”

Ryan also noted that the Democratic-controlled House has passed two pieces of gun legislation that could help reduce the number of tragedies like those in El Paso and Dayton. Trump has vowed to veto both.

Dayton’s mayor, Nan Whaley, said she spoke with Trump yesterday evening before a vigil for the shooting’s victims.

When asked how he felt about civilians bringing high-power firearms into his community, Police Chief Richard Biehl said it was “fundamentally problematic.”

Dayton’s police chief said he didn’t yet have any further clarification on how the shooter’s sister became one of the victims.

There have been many questions on whether the shooter specifically targeted his 22-year-old sister or if she was simply caught in an indiscriminate spray of bullets.

“We just don’t know,” Chief Richard Biehl said. He said he found it hard to believe the shooter would have targeted a family member, but he also questioned how the attacker could not have recognized his weapon was pointed toward his sister.

No evidence of race as motive, Dayton police chief says

Richard Biehl, Dayton’s police chief, said his officers still had a lot of evidence to go through before making a determination on the shooter’s motive.

But he noted that there was no indication as of yet that racism may have motivated the shooter.

“We’re not seeing any [evidence] at this time to suggest that race is a motive,” Biehl said.

Six of the nine victims shot and killed in Dayton were black.

Dayton shooter carrying a maximum of 250 rounds

Dayton’s mayor and police chief delivered an update this morning on the investigation into the shooting this weekend.

Mayor Nan Whaley said there was “not much movement on the investigation” yet, but Chief Richard Biehl offered some numbers on those injured and the number of shots fired.

Biehl said between 27 and 32 people had been injured in the attack, and at least 14 of those sustained gunshot wounds. Others were injured trying to flee the scene.

The police chief also said that at least 41 spent shell casings had been recovered, but he noted that some evidence may have been lost due to the chaos as the shooting unfolded. The shooter would have been carrying a maximum of 250 rounds, Biehl said.

Updated

Trump’s prepared statement today emphasized how his responses to various mass shootings have differed depending on who carried out the attack.

From a Politico reporter:

The 2015 attack in San Bernardino was carried out by a husband and wife who authorities said were inspired by Islamic extremists.

Trump slammed for confusing Dayton for Toledo in statement on mass shootings

Trump was widely criticized for confusing Dayton, the site of one of this weekend’s shootings, with Toledo.

Democratic presidential candidate Tim Ryan, who represents Ohio’s 13th District in the House, tweeted this shortly after the speech:

But it is only the most recent instance of Trump misidentifying the location of a mass shooting. In November 2017, a message from Trump’s Twitter account read, “May God be w/ the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI and Law Enforcement has arrived.”

But the Sutherland Springs shooting had actually occurred days before. It seemed that Trump was trying to reference a more recent attack on the Rancho Tehama Elementary School in northern California.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden also misidentified the locations of both shootings while speaking to donors last night.

The former vice president expressed sorrow about “the tragic events in Houston today and also in Michigan the day before,” according to a pool report. He later corrected himself.

Updated

Trump is also being criticized for the canned delivery of his statement on the shootings.

From a politics editor at the Root:

From the press secretary for Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro:

Trump's statement comes under quick criticism

Trump’s statement on the shootings was quickly criticized for downplaying the role of white supremacy and lenient gun laws.

Although the president called on America to “condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy,” he avoided any mention of his own role in fueling such rhetoric. One political scientist put it this way:

His focus on violent video games and mental-health care also enraged commentators who emphasized that Trump avoided outlining any specific action he would take to reform gun laws.

From a former Clinton White House aide:

From a writer for Salon:

And our colleague Sabrina Siddiqui noted that Trump even messed up which city the second shooting took place in:

Trump blames shootings on video games and mental-health care in scattered statement

Trump issued a statement on the attacks in El Paso and Dayton in which he blamed violent video games and mental health-care, among other things, for mass shootings.

Condemning the “barbaric slaughters,” Trump called on the nation to reject racism. “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy,” Trump said.

But he then pivoted to any number of other subjects -- including violent video games, access to mental-heath care and the federal death penalty.

Trump speaks on the shootings

Trump has taken the podium at the White House to deliver a statement on the shootings in El Paso and Dayton. Watch it here.

Trump is expected to speak on the shootings at any moment. In the meantime, here are some of the front pages from around the country about the two tragedies:

Gillibrand: Trump is "emboldening white supremacists," and "he is one himself"

Democratic presidential candidates are coming out in force this morning to condemn Trump’s response to the shootings in the strongest possible terms.

Kirsten Gillibrand was on CNN this morning accusing Trump of “emboldening white supremacists,” adding later that “he is one himself.”

Asked whether America should strengthen its background checks system, the New York senator said, “Of course we do.”

She then quickly pivoted to Trump’s role in the two tragedies. “This president needs to take a lot more responsibility than that,” Gillibrand said. “He’s been emboldening white supremacists his entire presidency and his campaign. He’s been using language to demonize immigrants, to demonize the vulnerable his entire presidency.”

Gillibrand also zeroed in on Trump’s own ideology. “That is what a lack of leadership in the White House looks like,” she said. “He is not only egging on white supremacy and white nationalism, but he is one himself. He has been using racist language as a candidate and as president for two years, especially against immigrants.”

She also dismissed Trump’s suggestion of linking background check legislation to immigration reform as “absurd.” “This is part of the problem,” Gillibrand said. “He continues to try to demonize people seeking asylum, people needing our help.”

The nine victims of the Dayton shooting ranged in age from 22 to 57. Here are their names:

An Ohio State Representative is coming under fire for arguing mass shootings should be blamed, in part, on same-sex marriage and rights for transgender people. The representative argued in a Facebook post both contribute to “breakdown” in society.

Ohio State Representative Candice Keller represents a conservative district, almost entirely white, district outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the executive director of a crisis pregnancy center, and was elected in 2016, with Trump.

In the past, Keller has been criticized for speaking with a local white supremacist podcaster, has compared the Planned Parenthood logo to a swastika, and supported an Ohio bill which would “abolish” abortion and make it punishable by the death penalty.

The Guardian spoke with Keller in April, in an interview where she said abortion rights could cause such a rift in the country that it may lead to civil war.

“Abortion is not the law in this country, neither is gay marriage. All these cases are case law,” said Keller, referring to the US Supreme Court precedents legalizing both abortion and gay marriage. “They can be challenged at any time, just like we are now challenging abortion.”

Keller said she believed in the future, “Just like we used to have slave states and free states, there will come a time when Ohio will become a life state, and states along the East coast you will be able to abort your child,” said Keller. “Those will be states where you have a culture of life.”

“Whether this ever leads to a tragedy, like it did before with our Civil War, I can’t say,” she said. “That’s going to be something your generation, and your children’s generation, will have to deal with.”

The president of a startup news outlet in El Paso lambasted Trump for trying to tie immigration reform to a background checks bill:

Another Democratic presidential candidate, Tim Ryan, mocked Trump’s suggestion of linking a background checks bill to immigration reform.

“That’s an absolute freaking joke that he’s going to tie this to the most polarized issue happening in the United States,” the Ohio congressman said on CNN. “Mitch McConnell needs to get off his ass and do something.”

A CNN reporter also noted that Trump has made similar promises in the wake of previous mass shootings:

O'Rourke echoes comparison of Trump's response to Nazi Germany

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke issued an impassioned condemnation of Trump’s response to the shootings on MSNBC this morning.

Speaking in his hometown of El Paso, the former Texas congressman recounted the president’s hateful rhetoric toward immigrants. “The only modern Western democracy that I can think of that said anything close to this is the Third Reich, Nazi Germany,” O’Rourke said.

He went on to criticize journalists who question whether Trump’s racist comments should be labeled as such.

“Anyone who is surprised is part of this problem right now, including members of the media who ask: ‘Hey Beto, do you think the president is racist?’ Well, Jesus Christ, of course he’s racist,” O’Rourke said. “He’s been racist from day one.”

The editorial board of another conservative outlet, National Review, argued that the El Paso shooting showed the need for America to root out white supremacy.

“In America, as abroad, we see our fair share of inexplicable violence,” the board wrote. “But the patterns on display over the last few years have revealed that we are contending here not with another ‘lone wolf,’ but with the fruit of a murderous and resurgent ideology — white supremacy — that deserves to be treated by the authorities in the same manner as has been the threat posed by militant Islam.”

The editors of the magazine also called on Trump to “condemn these actions repeatedly and unambiguously, in both general and specific terms.”

But perhaps tellingly, the editorial also advised readers against considering gun control legislation.

“We will see a myopic focus on guns in the coming days, tied to a broader discussion of America’s ‘mass shooting problem,’” the board wrote. “This will be a mistake — not because America does not have such a problem, but because to focus on limiting a certain tool in a country with half a billion of those tools in circulation and a constitutional provision protecting their ownership is to set oneself up for guaranteed failure.”

Trump began today by blaming “Fake News” for having “contributed greatly to the anger and rage that has built up over many years.”

In doing so, he was echoing a line from the El Paso shooter, a Politico reporter noted:

The New York Post, one of Trump’s favorite newspapers that is owned by conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is out with a front-page editorial today calling for “the return of an assault-weapons ban.”

But many journalists have noted that the right-leaning outlet issued a similar plea after the Parkland shooting to no avail:

Nadler: Trump's response 'reminds me of 1930s Germany'

The Democratic chairman of the House judiciary committee, Jerry Nadler, compared Trump’s response to the shootings to Nazi Germany:

And a University of Alabama law professor made this point about Trump’s morning tweet suggesting that a background checks bill should be linked to immigration reform:

Updated

At the same time, the president’s daughter and White House advisor Ivanka Trump called white supremacy “terrorism” in a tweet. The language echoed a New York Times editorial over the weekend.

She was immediately criticized, including by a lawmaker who was the recent target of a racist tweet by President Trump, Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

In July, Trump told four female Congresswomen of color to “go back” to the nations they came from. The tweet played on old racist tropes, and was also inaccurate – all but one of the women was born in the United States.

Trump blames media for 'anger and rage'

President Trump is under intense criticism following two back-to-back massacres in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas, in which dozens of people were killed with military-style assault rifles.

In the El Paso shooting, a long manifesto was posted online shortly before the massacre began, saying the attack was motivated by hatred of immigrants. He used language which echoed that often used by President Trump to stoke support for immigration restrictions.

Trump responded this morning by blaming the “Fake News” media for a contributing to “anger and rage,” calling for background checks, and “marrying” the legislation with immigration reform.

“We must have something good, if not GREAT [sic], come out of these two tragic events!” he tweeted early Monday.

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